I thought I would post the link to a new TB article on A2I. I found it quite informative as well as helpful in putting into perspective my tendency to go back and forth between Theravada and Mahayana practice. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts as well.

Three bows for Bhikkhu Thanissaro. I had not read that when i abandoned the Mahayana for the Theravada , but it parallels exactly why I did..what my thought processes were. It was not an easy or simple process, it involved first a dark night of the soul or its equivalent.

The article parallels a lot of my thought processes as I continually develop more faith in the Theravada. Thanissaro puts it so simply yet effectively and it just makes more sense to me than a lot of what Zen and Tibetan Buddhism has to say.

The whole "mind is naturally good" idea is something I held onto for a long time, partly because I don't have a Theravada teacher and so I get a lot of my instruction from various Western new agey-type teachers who actually know very little about real Buddhism. I think I also have a tendency to trust and believe in the goodness of people because I want to have hope for this world - I'm kind of attached to the notion of everyone eventually "waking up" so we can all stop collectively suffering. Thanissaro puts these ideas to rest quite nicely.